Welcome to my showcase. Our community college students have been tutoring middle and high school math and science students throughout the four years of our grant. We found that the tutoring that the community college students provided to the middle and high school students had an impact on their future participation in dual enrollment STEM courses.  Being able to tutor remotely via Zoom has allowed us to continue tutoring during the pandemic.

Thank you, Sharon, for the video. I'm wondering what kind of interactions do the tutors engage in with the parents?

Thank you for taking the time to view my video, Catherine. The tutors' interactions with the parents are mainly to for scheduling. The tutors contact the parents to set up the tutoring schedule and provide the parents with the virtual link for tutoring.   The parents are supposed to be monitoring the student during the tutoring sessions. On occassion the parent will ask questions about content but those questions are usually forwarded to the supervising teacher.

Sounds like a very constructive response to a real need.

I wonder what kinds of impact it's having on the tutors?  And what sort of support do the tutors get along the way? 

It definitely has a positive impact on the tutors. They report that they learned the content better because they now have to explain it. They also report an increase in confidence and interest in teaching.  The tutors get support from the middle and high school teachers and the college STEM faculty. They also get paid as student workers so they are earning money.

Thank you for this great work! How are the middle and high school students selected?

Pre-covid we planned to us the aggregate SAT scores  as a measure of impact on learning since all of the high school students take the SAT's and we have pre-project data. However, due the pandemic that metric was no longer available. Currently we just have self reported impact- students say they are doing better in their classes. We have seen an increase in  the nubmer of students enrolling in the dual enrollment programs at the college.The positive role that the CC students have on the middle and high school students has not been quanitified, but the teachers report that the students are asking more questions about college and talking more about college than they were before the tutoring.

Sounds great!  Covid did sure do a number on data analysis!  

Hi Sharon, thanks for the video.  I was wondering what sort of professional development, or training, you provided to the tutors before you had them interact with the younger students.  Were there any common misconceptions that the tutors encountered?

Hi David,

We provide them with technical training so they can tutor remotely using Zoom and some basic tutoring training so they can have positive interactions with the students. We also have a high school and middle school teacher who coordinates the tutoring and interacts with the tutors. I don't know of any common misconceptions regarding tutoring- but the tutors have shared the common misconceptions  the students have about college (mainly it only for the very smart and those who can afford it) and the college students enjoy sharing their expereinces college experiences with the students.

Sharon,

I love this idea. Do you have the students attend the courses in the middle and high schools so they know what the teachers are actually covering? 

Do the students from the college need to have background checks to be in the middle schools?

Thank you, Kathryn. The tutors do not attend the classes but precovid some of the tutors did help out in the science classes. The teachers give the tutors a textbook and a syllabus so they know what is being taught in the classes. 

They do not need to have background checks since the students are never alone with the tutors , a teacher or their parents are always present.

We have a NOYCE grant at my college to get students interested in teaching STEM. I will see if the person in charge of the program wants to think about this type of program. Thanks for the idea.